2 I 8 
Shiv Ram K ashy aft. 
receptacles are similar to those of the ventral surface, purple in 
colour, but simpler. The appendage usually is either small or 
absent. Even more interesting are the variations met with in the 
male receptacle of plants growing in exposed places. Here the 
male shoot, though arising from the ventral surface has the 
appearance of the ordinary shoot, and the antheridia form a cushion 
along the midrib, but this cushion is not at all separated from the 
wings of the shoot. In addition to these ventral male shoots in the 
species under discussion the main shoot itself often forms the 
antheridial cushion on the midrib (Fig. 2, c, d). The appearance of 
these main male shoots is very much like that of the male shoots of 
some species of Fimbriaria. It is interesting to note that in such 
cases the ventral surface has, at a little distance behind the apex, 
two rows of scales, but immediately behind the anterior margin the 
Fig. 2. Taygionia hypophylla: a, b, c, male shoots, x 4; d, transverse 
section of male shoot, x 20. 
scales sometimes appear to be scattered as in the modified ventral 
male shoots. The reason of this is that rapid dichotomy occurs and 
the two or more growing points can often be easily distinguished. 
But if these growing points were still further obscured, we shall 
have no indication of the cause of scattered scales. This is what 
happens in the modified ventral male shoots. 
It appears, therefore, that the disc of the male shoot of 
Targionia has been formed from a receptacle of a composite type 
by reduction as described above and as explained by Goebel (Flora, 
Bd. 101, 1910, Fig. 41). The scales on the ventral surface of each 
lobe in the ancestral condition would, on the disappearance of the 
lobes, appear to be scattered on the under surface. The same holds 
good for the scales surrounding the receptacles of genera like 
Plagiochasma which will be discussed later, especially in view of the 
species P. articulatum in which the receptacles arise terminally but 
become dorsal by adventitious apical shoots, like those of Pressia 
commutata (Goebel in Flora, Bd. 101, Figs. 19 and 20). 
